


Drowning in Their Possession

by wastefulreverie



Series: PhannieMay Shots 2018 [24]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Dissection, Drama, Experimentation, Exposed, Family, Gen, Gore, Horror, Identity Reveal, Torture, Vivisection, secret reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-10-01 02:19:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17235491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastefulreverie/pseuds/wastefulreverie
Summary: Dash has a scheme to humiliate Danny on an online livestream. Little did he know the repercussions of exposing Danny to the entire world, nevermind what came after. Twoshot.





	1. Caught in Their Cameras

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for PhannieMay 2018 day 27 - Exposed

Everybody knew Danny Fenton was absolutely, hopelessly afraid of ghosts. Many speculated that it was years of trauma that had been drilled into him since he was a baby. His parents were ghost hunters, so all his bedtime stories were most likely about the scary specters and all things that went bump in the night. So naturally, he grew up fearing it. There were a few years in middle-school where he seemed indifferent to the notion of ghosts, but once highschool began, his fear of ghosts was instantly rekindled.

Danny's Freshman year of highschool was when ghosts made themselves known to everyone in Amity Park. For years, the Fenton parents had been ridiculed, but now people were faced with the evidence that they had been right all along. Ghosts were a reality, and they were all over the place. And because of that, Danny grew to be a complete mess. 

It was normal to be scared of ghosts, but Danny was almost notoriously cowardly to the point that it was ridiculous! Danny would run away from the freaking Box Ghost, if that said anything. Everybody in Amity had learned that the Box Ghost was simply a joke, nothing to be feared, but Danny still fled every time the annoying spirit showed up. 

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Danny would cut class if he even had a reason to suspect that there was a ghost nearby, and usually there was nothing even there! If a ghost attacked the cafeteria, Danny would be the only person to run out the doors, while everyone else had learned to hide under the tables. Not to mention that he couldn't even be in the same vicinity with the town's hero, Danny Phantom, for some unknown reason.

Overall, Danny Fenton was nowhere to be seen when ghosts arrived because he was terrified of them. It was a well-known fact, one that even his friends Sam and Tucker confirmed. He was irrationally scared of Amity's strange occurrences, and he himself wouldn't deny it.

Which is why Dash believed Danny to be the perfect target for a fake ghost attack. His reaction would be priceless, after all. Everybody else at Casper High had grown immune to the shock of a ghost attack, but Danny was pathetically wimpy and vulnerable. He was practically _begging_ to be pranked! Which is why Dash called up a bunch of his friends, and took the liberty to stage an artificial ghost attack, specially for his favorite little geek.

They had to put all their heads together to figure out how to do it, but Dash and his crew formulated a plan on how to pull it off. To succeed, they would have to actually get help from some real ghosts, but Dash was confident that it would work. There were many ghosts who liked scaring humans, so he figured that it wouldn't be too difficult to find one that would cooperate with their plan.

Apparently one of the guys had heard about some shapeshifter ghost that liked to mess with people, and don't ask Dash how, but they somehow managed to get in contact with him. The whole situation was sketchy as hell, but it was worth it. The ghost called himself Amorpho, and it took a _lot_ of persuasion on Dash's end, but the specter finally agreed.

“I don't know if I'm up for this,” Amorpho said. “Last time I was in Amity, Phantom made me promise to keep my business away from this town, or he'd throw me back into the Ghost Zone. If he finds out-” 

“He won't,” Dash reassured. “It's just some dumb kid in my grade that we're scaring for fun. All you have to do is change into something really scary and he'll wet his pants! Phantom will never have to even find out, I promise!”

“I hope you're not pulling my leg,” Amorpho muttered, “but I'll go along with it. What else am I going to do with my afterlife if I don't scare a few teenagers here and there, eh?”

The next day they set their plan in motion. Dash was the director of the prank, and told everyone else what to do. Kwan was given the job to actually lead Danny to the location of the prank, which was Casper's basement. Michael and Tanner had pulled the short straw, and were supposed to ensure that Danny couldn't escape the room, which only had one exit. Meanwhile, Dale and Dylan were tasked with live streaming the prank on Facebook and Instagram, respectively. They were the only ones who were going to stay in the basement the entire time, and would be hiding behind a cluster of wooden crates. All that was left was to get Danny in the picture.

Around fifth period on Friday, Dash and the other guys found Danny outside of his locker like usual. They could've just _thrown_ him in the basement, but he had to be unsuspecting. They had to give him a reason to believe he was 'safe' until the actual practical joke. Or, in other words, stealth. So after Fenturd's daily beating, Dash also stole his backpack. It would come into play later, and Dash felt ingenious for developing such a complex plan.

As soon was class was over, Kwan solely cornered Danny directly outside of Mr. Lancer's classroom. Thankfully, Sam was in another class and Tucker had already made a beeline for his locker, so Danny was all alone for once. It was a rare occurrence and Kwan felt more confident due to his stroke of luck. 

“Hey, Fenton,” Kwan said, approaching the suddenly skittish boy.

“What now?” Danny rolled his eyes. “You've already taken my backpack today. Come to steal my shoes too, or something? Just get it over with.”

“That was Dash,” Kwan said, convincingly, “not me. I – uh, actually know where your backpack is. That's why I came over here. I'll help you find it,” Kwan offered. He was believably the nicest of the A-Listers to Danny and his friends, which is why he was chosen. But even though Kwan was the nicest, he still had an appreciation for watching others be humiliated. It was natural.

“So... you're not gonna beat me up again?” Danny confirmed, with a hint of lingering distrust. He knew that Kwan had no reason to help him. “Why? You're Dash's friend.”

Kwan fake sighed, “Yeah, but I can still help you out, right? Maybe you don't deserve _everything_ we do to you.”

He was stringing him along so easily it was almost funny.

“I guess that makes sense,” Danny decided. “So where did Dash throw my stuff?”

Kwan tried to mask his grin, “Follow me.”

He led him down to the stairwell to the basement, and Danny followed silently. He probably didn't know what to say to Kwan, and Kwan was grateful because small talk would be even more awkward. Finally, they got to the entrance to the basement and Kwan slowly and loudly opened the door, just to give Dale and Dylan enough of a warning to make sure they were completely hidden. 

“Dash says he chucked your backpack down here,” Kwan said, “but I'm not sure exactly where. My guess would be over there.” He pointed in the opposite direction from where his friends were hiding.

“Thanks, Kwan,” Danny said. Kwan waited for him to find it. They'd purposely left it in a really obvious place so Danny didn't have to look around much.

Now, it was time for the next step of the plan.

As Danny ceremoniously held up his found backpack, Kwan's phone made a loud noise, and he pretended to look at it in surprise.

“Oh, no!” Kwan said., reading the fake text. “Dash said that the entire upper floor of the building is being attacked by ghosts! It's awful!”

“Really?” Danny tilted his head, his eyes growing slightly alarmed. “I didn't....”

“I don't know what to do!” Kwan monologued, cutting him off. “How about you stay down here, while I go look how bad it is up there?” It was a perfect excuse to confine Danny in the basement. Kwan would be able to leave the basement, while Danny would cower in the basement, afraid of getting caught up in the attack upstairs. Unbeknownst to him, Kwan would lock his only exit on the way out, and Danny would be stuck.

Thankfully, Danny fell into the trap. Kwan watched with satisfaction as a look of worry etched across the boy's face. “Th – that sounds good! You get out of here, make sure people are okay, then get out of the building! Don't even worry about me, I'll be okay down here. Just make sure _you_ get out, okay?”

His adamance was pitiful, and Kwan left the basement without trying to persuade Danny further. He'd expected Danny to at least pretend like he wasn't scared, but apparently he was so much of a coward that he was past acting.

Once Kwan had cleared the area, Danny didn't bother keeping up his terrified facade. It was odd. According to Kwan, from Dash, there were a bunch of ghosts upstairs, but Danny's ghost sense hadn't even gone off yet. Had they been lying to him? No, Danny didn't want to take the chance. He had to transform and make sure there weren't any threats, and if there were, he'd have to get rid of them. Thankfully, he'd gotten his backpack back, which had his Fenton Thermos in it. He'd have been screwed without it.

Quickly, Danny emptied the contents of his bag and fished out the thermos. He was about to transform, but he lost focus on his core when he felt his ghost sense finally go off. Aha! So it'd just been a little delayed, and there was _an_ actual ghostly threat somewhere in the school. That was weird, because usually he was pretty accurate at ghost detection, but he supposed maybe the ghosts hadn't been as close to the basement as they'd been before, and that's why he only felt it then.

Before he could try to transform into Phantom again, an ectoblast appeared out of nowhere and struck him between his feet. Danny backed up reflexively, and immediately took a defensive stance. “Show yourself,” he demanded, gripping his thermos tightly.

A familiar face materialized before his eyes. Danny questionably lowered his guard, before remembering that he'd just been attacked. He regained his composure and narrowed his eyes dubiously.

“Amorpho? What the hell are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay away from Amity, not to mention that I was under the impression that we had a truce?”

Amorpho looked at him dumbly, his eyes widening with every word, “Oh my Pariah, they didn't tell me it'd be you! I – I swear I didn't mean to, Billy! Don't hurt me!”

Everyone listening in on the conversation were confused. Dash and Kwan were watching remotely together from the feed Dale and Dylan was uploading, meanwhile Michael and Tanner were listening at the basement's door. There were also various students watching across Amity Park online, who'd randomly come across the live video.

Not only was Danny Fenton standing up to a ghost, strangely unfazed by it, but the ghost in question was also afraid of Danny! Fenton was supposed to be the number one scaredy-cat in all of Casper High, yet he was acting almost like some kind of ghost hunter! Did that mean that he was only pretending to run off and be scared most of the time? Also, Danny and the ghost were reacting to each other like they knew each other, so what was that even about? The entire ordeal was just... _off_. Something weird was going on, and nobody felt comfortable seeing this new side of Danny Fenton. 

“If you didn't 'mean to', then why did you intentionally throw an ectoblast at me?” Danny asked, threateningly. “I was always unsure about letting you go, and I'm starting to change my mind....”

“No, you don't understand! Don't change, you're-”

Danny's hands glowed with green fire, causing everyone watching to do a double take. Many people were questioning if this was a real live stream, or some kind of film project. Because this certainly couldn't actually be happening.... Danny Fenton exhibiting superpowers didn't make sense. Dash and his crew on the other hand, observed with a new-found fear that was gradually escalating to something akin to horror.

Danny raised a fiery fist and aimed it towards the opposing ghost, and a jet of energy knocked Amorpho two feet out of the air. It wasn't a serious attack, but more like a warning shot. Since Amorpho was now off-guard, Danny raised his arms in the air, extinguishing the ecto-energy around his hands, and clearly recited, “Going ghost!”

Many people watched in fascination as a white halo formed around Danny's waist, illuminating the entire area and disturbing the white balance of the cellphone cameras. The fuzziness of the cameras made it difficult to see exactly what was happening, but the general transformation was discernible. The formation of light separated to change Danny Fenton into... Amity's infamous, ghostly superhero, Danny Phantom. His expression didn't even change, and many people found themselves mentally reevaluating the two boys, trying to convince themselves that they were still two different people. But they had seen. And he was exposed. 

Dash and Kwan stared at the footage in shock. Fenton... was Phantom? Wait, wait, wait. _Fenton_ _was Phantom!_ They'd bullied him! And – and so much more, for God knows how long. But Phantom was a ghost, and Danny was supposed to be just some kid. Fenton was the kid who ran away during ghost attacks, who was afraid of ghosts! But he wasn't.... Because he was a ghost and that was his alibi to go _stop_ ghost attacks, wasn't it? He was just faking being afraid of ghosts, because how could he harbor fear for what he was? 

Dash resigned to the floor with a numb fervor. Kwan continued to glue himself to his phone. What was real? Who was Danny Fenton? Was Phantom their hero? Nothing made sense. And nothing continued to make sense and nobody knew what was happening anymore when all sense faded into oblivion. 

Danny flew up, raising his fist again, and his eyes churned even more dangerously. This was a common tactic Phantom used in his fights, but everything was still different.

(Was that kid dead or alive? What _was_ he, anyway?)

Amorpho didn't react much to Danny's transformation, and tentatively backed up. “Look, Billy, I – I don't want to go back to the Ghost Zone.”

“Yeah? You came back into my town, after we agreed that you'd stay away,” Danny started.

“Let me-”

Danny ignored him. “And what's the first thing you do?” he asked rhetorically. “Attack me.”

Amorpho grew frustrated and changed forms to collect Phantom's attention. He changed into a familiar figure, Sam Manson, who faced Danny with genuine red eyes.

“Billy, if I may explain?”

Danny's eyes placated at the sight of his friend, and let the energy from his hand dissipate. “Only if you stop mimicking Sam,” he said.

Amorpho changed back into his regular form and shot at a group of crates. The crates fell over to reveal Dale and Dylan, who were timidly recording everything on their phones. Danny's jaw dropped open, and before anyone could say anything, Amorpho obliterated the cellphones, cutting off the live streaming.

“What the hell?” Danny said, floating down to be at equal eye level with the two revealed jocks. “H – have they been there the entire time.” Amorpho cringed and Dale and Dylan stared at Danny, completely mesmerized, yet somewhat afraid. Danny realized that they must have witnessed his transformation and began to panic. “Oh, no no no no no. This isn't... oh, _shit_.”

Amorpho tried to explain, even though Danny was mid panic attack and could only half comprehend what he was saying. “-they told me that they were pranking some human. I would've never – your secret!”

Danny couldn't care less about Amorpho when he was face to face with two of his classmates who now knew what he was... there was no doubt that they would tell everyone. He clenched his fists, grabbing a handful of white hair. Danny was doomed. His secret had just been peeled away as easily as a band-aid, leaving everything beneath exposed for the world to see. Danny's breath accelerated. He was unnatural, he was a _freak_ , and now two new people knew it.

The effect that had rendered Dale and Dylan silent, gradually wore off and they regained their reasoning. Obviously, they were also mentally freaking out, but they were in better condition than the hyperventilating ghost boy.

“Holy shit!” Dale whispered. His thoughts poured out of his head until his mouth sloppily blurted them out. “Fenton is Phantom and- and- and _what_?”

The verbal statement from Dale finally reigned Danny into coming back into reality. He wasn't in any condition to be, though.

Danny let go of his hair and subtly pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. It was a habit Sam had taught him because of his recent increase of nightmares. He firmly locked eyes with Dale and Dylan. “You can't tell _anyone_.”

It was hopeless, of course they would tell people. Danny knew it. Guys like them had no reasons to keep secrets. Why would they care if some freak got carted off to the government to be some kind of lab rat?

Danny was confused when they both responded with looks of horror. Wait, no, that was fear. They were afraid of him. That made sense too, he supposed, he was a ghost – both Phantom and Fenton, and they probably just realized he could hurt them. They had the option to be afraid, so of course they were going to be scared of him.

“We...” Dylan whispered, shaken to his core, “we were live streaming. All of it. Didn't know. Was a joke. S'posed to scare you... and. _Lot_ of people saw.”

Nothing happened. The words simply didn't register within him. A... live stream? Like on the internet? His secret had already been put online, that quickly? It was impossible to process, ridiculous to process. He'd just panicked about two people finding out. However, they'd already revealed Danny to everyone in one go and – and was the floor getting closer? Maybe?

Everyone. Who was everyone supposed to be? His fellow peers? Amity Park? The government agents about to track him down? Whatever, they all knew now. Or would know very, very soon. The knowledge that Fenton was Phantom had just exploded. His normal life was compromised, and now Danny Fenton would never be able to be human again. If he didn't get captured by the government in the next few days, he'd just be known as 'that ghost-kid'. His parents, too. People would tell his parents, and they would be forced to accept the news that their son wasn't even human anymore. 

He let his arms collapse and nothing was holding him up from the floor anymore. How pathetic. Everything was over. Would he even see school again? What about Sam or Tucker? Their parents would probably keep both them locked away at home once they realized what they were actually doing at night instead of studying.

This was too fast. His head was too warm for him to be a ghost. Maybe his brain was melting. That'd probably be a preferable fate opposed to what was waiting for him. He didn't want to think about what  _ could _ be waiting for him.

So he wouldn't think, he just had to move. Quickly. Before the word spread, before people would come after him. He had to get out of the school, probably out of the city too. He shouldn't go to Vlad, people knew he was associated with his parents. Vlad would probably betray him for his own safety anyway. He didn't know anyone outside of Amity beside his Aunt Alicia, so he'd have to improvise. Just like the chase across the country with Freakshow. Except, alone, this time. He wouldn't drag Sam and Tucker into this again, he'd never be so cruel to his friends twice.

Danny let himself be pulled into the invisible realm, and he ignored Dale and Dylan's appalled gasps. He didn't know where he was going yet, but he figured he'd still have time to grab a bag of essentials from his house. In fact, he already had an emergency bag packed for this exact situation. Again, it was just something he'd learned to expect from the Freakshow incident. He'd fly into his room quickly, phase out, and hopefully he wouldn't have to face his parents at all. 

When he got to his street, it was completely deserted. He didn't see the GAV either, so that meant his parents weren't there. Maybe they'd seen it on the internet already and had raced out to find him at school. That idea was almost three times as worse. 

He went in his room, and there was instantly a gun at his head. There was no attacker, but it was an automated defense from his house's anti-creep mode. Instinctively, Danny changed back to human so he wouldn't be shot. Since the anti-creep mode was activated, that definitely indicated that Jack and Maddie had heard about Danny, so they'd left the house defended while they were out.

Having to change back to human form was definitely going to slow him down, but he had no choice until he got outside of FentonWorks. With as much energy as he could muster, Danny propelled himself to the other side of his room and looked for his emergency bag that he had stashed in the back of his closet. He rummaged through the messy closet before getting a firm grip on the bag, and began running down the stairs. It was then that he realized he was at a crossroad. He could either hide somewhere in the human world, outside of Amity Park, or he could temporarily hide inside the Ghost Zone. He'd packed enough snacks to last him probably about three weeks in there, so it was a possible option. But he didn't have time to weigh his decision; Danny had to move as fast as possible.

He made a choice. The Ghost Zone was too risky, and he'd probably do better hiding out in the woods or in a big city where no one would recognize him. Plus, he was still alive, which the Ghost Zone wasn't suitable for.

But as Danny made his way towards the front door of his house, he found himself instantly regretting his on the spot decision. Only twenty feet away were around ten GIW agents, all of them armed with blasters that were trained on him within seconds. Even if he transformed, there was little opportunity for him to escape this. 

There was a loud clicking noise, and before he realized what had happened, there was a pair of ectocuffs around both of his wrists. He wrestled against his bonds, but the butt of an agent's gun came down over his eyes and he felt his knees pound against the pavement. Everything else lost sensation, and he was missing. 

 


	2. Drowning in Their Possession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny's been captured by the Guys In White. Only hell awaits him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally written for PhannieMay 2018 day 30 - Free Day.

There were many words to describe Danny's imprisonment. You could find many of them under the article for 'unpleasant' in the thesaurus, but that was probably an understatement. Danny was in hell.

He hadn't seen the light of day in two months, ever since that dreadful day he was captured right outside of FentonWorks because he'd let himself be exposed on social media. He was honestly pathetic for being so naive; he never should've gone home at all. And now he was paying for his stupid mistake, he was truly, a lab-rat. They had no mercy, and he was starting to wonder if he deserved his torture. 

_(Probably.)_

When he had first awoken after his capture, he was floating in complete darkness. His entire body felt sore, and whenever he tried to move, something shocked him. Painfully. It took him time to recall what had happened to him, and when he remembered, he only struggled more, causing him to accidentally fry himself. 

Later, he found out that place was called 'the tank'. It was a metal tank used for storing ghosts, lined with a layer of ectoranium. The ghost was suspended within the tank using some sort of ectoplasmic anti-gravity installation. If he even tried to touch any of the walls, he was burned by the ectoranium, so he had to stay completely still if he didn't want to hurt himself. After a while in captivity, Danny began to long for time in the tank again, because it was so much better than what awaited him outside.

Back on the first day, they had probably left him in the tank for about seven or eight hours. It had felt like an eternity, especially since he was still experiencing the shock that he'd actually been captured. They... and everyone... knew his secret. And now he was being taken to who knows where for painful, agonizing experiments. And to think, hours earlier, he'd been stressing out about one of Lancer's tests and a stolen backpack.

None of it felt real. It was just another nightmare, wasn't it? He'd had plenty of bad dreams and meltdowns about this sort of situation. But it was happening. And Danny had no control and his life was over.

No more schoolwork. No more Sam and Tucker. No more overbearing Jazz. No more disappointed parents. No more Lancer. No more bullies. No more ghost fights. No more homework. No more secret trips to the Ghost Zone.

No more freedom.

And very soon, there would be no more Danny Fenton. After all, they didn't use names in a place like this. Wherever he was.

He still wanted to have hope, even though he already knew it was hopeless. His chance of escape was very low, and unless they let him free, he wasn't getting out. How would he?

He also wondered how everyone else was taking it. Had the GIW even told anyone that they'd taken him? Maybe they hadn't, maybe people will just believe that he disappeared. If he really did have no chance of escape, then maybe that was a good thing.

But the GIW was an arrogant organization. Most likely, they'd already announced to all of the news channels that they'd detained him. He was their property now, just another freak to add to their collection of trophies. There was no doubt that he was all over the media at that point. His parents were probably crying over him, wondering how their precious baby boy could turn out to be... so vulgar. They probably saw him as inhuman. The only reason they would want to get him out of the GIW would be so they could experiment on him themselves. 

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were probably blaming themselves. After all, they were the only people who had known Danny's secret, so in their minds', they were the only people who could've protected him. He appreciated his friends, but there was little they could've done to prevent this, since it was mainly his fault to begin with.

The general media was probably painting him out to be some deceitful teenager who was only pretending to be Amity's protector. That way the GIW was portrayed as a 'good' organization in the eyes of the public. Because they would _never_ kidnap a half-human kid and force him to be the subject of experiments, especially if they knew he was a hero.

And yet, there he was, floating in a tank, waiting to be raped by the devil himself. Deep down, Danny believed there was no good way out of this, and his time in the tank only strengthened his negative perception.

Finally, the GIW opened the tank and threw him the floor. His body was numb from being crumpled up and still for so long, so it was difficult to move in the first place. They instantly put a shock collar on him, and commanded him to stand. When he didn't comply, they activated the shock collar, which felt just as bad as the ectoranium. Except the collar actually made his skin secrete ectoplasm, hardly destabilizing him. Finally, he managed to pull himself to his feet, and they pushed him forward with their guns. 

His sensory input was slipping into overload when they pushed him down a pristine white hallway with deadlocked metal doors every twenty feet. There was the lingering scent of ectoplasm and Danny almost wanted to fall over and throw up because he knew where that smell had come from. But he managed to keep his wobbly legs moving so they wouldn't shock him. They turned a corner, and the agents brought him to a bare, cement room with only a metal framed bed and a thin mattress. 

“This is where you'll be kept,” a nameless agent said. He didn't speak to Danny, but rather at him. “You'll be collected in the morning.”

They evacuated the room before Danny could even process their exit. The metal door slammed shut, and he heard about ten locks slide into place. Then, there was a quiet whirring sound and Danny observed a ghost shield appearing a few millimeters off of the walls. Hesitantly, Danny brought his hand to the shield, and he was shocked again, just as he'd expected. In the few hours that they had discovered his status as a half-ghost, they had modified a ghost shield to be strong enough to harm his human form. Looking back, it was probably why they had kept him detained in the tank for so long.

Just to see what his options were, Danny found out that he could turn into Phantom with the collar on, but he wasn't able to use any of his powers. Dejectedly, he reverted back into Fenton because it took less energy. With no other choice, Danny fell back against his uncomfortable bed, curled up into a ball, and wept for the loss of his freedom.

The next week was just as hopeless as the previous day. Maybe even more so, because Danny really got to see how difficult escape would be. At first, they just brought him to a tech lab to do a bunch of scans of his body. It was extremely uncomfortable and Danny hated how everybody was constantly looking at him, and how he had been reduced to an obedient specimen just after one day. But whenever he didn't do what they said, they would shock him, and turn up the pain scale until he complied. They were easily able to demand him to change forms, and by the second day, he did so without a thought. 

He wanted nothing more than to fight back, but Danny knew he had to conserve his energy until he knew that he had a probable chance of success. That meant he had to avoid getting shocked, because it took a _lot_ out of him every time they did. However, if it came to something truly invasive and tortuous, he'd fight back in an instant. Scans weren't preferable, but he could tolerate them when opposed to grisly experiments and drugs. 

But Danny knew that eventually, they'd make him suffer through those things. He just had to find an opening to get out before it happened. 

Somewhere around the fourth day, the director of the GIW came in to see Danny. Danny was strapped to a chair and they were currently running hand-held sensors over his body. Danny had learned if he even tried to speak, they would turn on the shock collar. He'd kept quiet after that.

He wasn't their dog, he was just pretending to do what they said, so he had a better opportunity to get free. He had to keep reminding himself of that.

Director Blanchard reached out with a white glove and grabbed Danny's face, forcing Danny to look him directly in the eyes. He was currently in ghost form and wiggled uncomfortably until the man stopped touching his face.

“Change back,” Blanchard spat at him. Danny didn't hesitate and transformed into Danny Fenton. He was plagued with more fatigue and exhaustion in his human form, and had to take much deeper breaths. They hadn't fed him or given him water since he arrived, and he hadn't been able to sleep much due to insomnia.

Blanchard frowned at Danny, and turned towards a researcher. “Why is he still wearing those... civilian clothes?” he gestured, distastefully. “Put him in something more... uniform, plain. Less personal.” He thought a moment. “But make it white, after all, he's ours now.”

A few people left, probably to find something that met the director's demands.

Blanchard examined Danny some more. “He looks so weak. You've just done scans, so far, haven't you? Why's he in such bad condition.”

“I don't know,” a researcher shrugged. “Mental stress?”

Danny couldn't help but roll his eyes and blurt out an accusatory comment. “Yeah, it's not like you've taken me from my life and turned me into your lab-rat, torturing me and stealing my freedom.”

The researcher habitually reached for the trigger for the shock collar, but Blanchard made him stop. “And so it speaks,” he said.

Realizing that he was going to be shocked, Danny bit back a reply, “I'm not an _it_.”

“But you basically are. You're just a mass of impossible biology that's unfortunately sentient. All you are is precious scientific data ready to be discovered, an anomaly, but also our greatest hope at understanding more about the nature of ghosts,” Blanchard grinned. “You're a resource; how you feel means nothing to us, because your mind is worthless. We only care about your body, so we're going to treat you how we please.”

Danny narrowed his eyes in anger, “Fucking bastard.”

The researcher hit the button, and his collar erupted with pain, causing him to involuntarily cringe. The electricity was calibrated to his ectosignature, and it caused his skin to lightly bubble ectoplasm until the collar ceased. Danny gasped in misery, as his lungs burned with an itchy fire. Okay, maybe that last comment hadn't been worth it.

“Anyway,” Blanchard continued, “tell me more about it's condition. It's worsened since it got here two days ago?”

“Yes, it's definitely much weaker. Like I said, it's probably just mental-”

“Hmm,” Blanchard said, “I don't think so.” He turned to Danny. “Do you know why you're so weak right now?”

Danny glared at him, his voice was raspy. “Haven't eaten in days. No water either. Dehydrated.”

The researcher scoffed, “You don't need _food_ , you're a ghost! ”

“Half-ghost,” Danny countered. “I thought you guy's already knew that's why I'm so 'special'. I'm still alive, so I still need to eat.”

“Yes, but shouldn't ectoplasm be enough to sustain you?”

“Well, maybe if I was a normal ghost, but no. I need to eat to live.”

After that, he started getting food and water once a day. But it was only scraps from the GIW cafeteria, which was only slightly better than Casper High's menu. Edible, but absolutely disgusting. They also made him wear a white prisoner's jumpsuit with gray socks. They didn't give him any shoes. He eventually threw the socks across his room after they started smelling rancid because of his sweat. The rest of his clothes didn't smell any better.

The scans only lasted a few more days. At the end of his first week, the researchers were ready to move on to more... interactive experiments.

The first day on the table was his worst nightmare, until he had to do it again and again and then his 'worst' nightmare became his living nightmare. They wanted to see how much he could be injured before he destabilized so they could determine his limits before they started doing real experiments. They would cut him with scalpels all over and then watch his body heal and take notes on it while Danny was left bleeding all over the place, in pain. The days when they only tortured his human half were the worst; Phantom was able to take more injuries because in that form his healing factor was faster. Fenton... on the other hand, felt everything much more vividly and took even _longer_ to heal. Not to mention that blood was thinner than ectoplasm so he had a higher blood loss on those days.

Everything hurt so much. He was beginning to see no way out.

_ (Should I just give up? Let them kill me...?) _

No, he wouldn't go that route. He'd only been in this hell for two weeks. He wasn't going to give up so early. He _would_ get out, eventually. 

_ (That's a lie.) _

Half-way through his second week, his depressed thoughts were eased when instead of being taken to the lab, he was brought to a new room with a metal chair and a window into another room. The chair was facing the window, and they pushed him into it. They strapped him thoroughly to the chair and Danny's heart started beating faster because this was different than usual and in here, different was never good.

One of the agents coughed, before glancing at him impartially. “You have ten minutes.” The agent left the room, and Danny's eyes widened with horror.

“F – for what?” he called out, confused.

On the other side of a window, a door opened. His eyes were deceiving him, that couldn't....

His family.

There were there, only one room away from him, looking at him through the window. Danny didn't know how to react, honestly. Why were they here, was he going home? No, he couldn't be. The agent had told him that he only had ten minutes to speak to them. This was some sort of... visitation, not a release from his imprisonment. 

Jazz was wearing a brown sweater he'd gotten her for her last birthday. Her eyes were welled up with tears, and she pressed her hand against the glass, morosely. His parents were in their usual jumpsuits, but both of them looked... dulled. Like all of the life had been drained out of them, and they acted like it too. 

All he could do is gape back at them as they looked at him through the glass. He didn't know what to say. Last time he'd seen his parents was the morning he'd left before school, only for him to be exposed and captured. And here he was, face to face with them, and judging by their presence, they didn't completely hate him for what he was. He assumed Jazz had already told them everything that he'd kept from them, and they were here with her visiting him.

But Danny was still too scared to say something. This was cruel – putting his family just out of reach, reminding him that there were still miles between him and his freedom.

“Danny,” Maddie said. Her eyes reflected her sadness. “What have they done to you?”

What could he say? That he'd been sliced up the past few days, so that the GIW could get a grasp on how far they could go before he melted into goo? That he'd been shocked every time he breathed wrong or failed to follow orders? That he'd been treated like the inhuman creature that he was?

“How're you... here?” he asked, instead.

“Vlad,” Jazz explained softly, “he found some legal clause that let us come see you. But after this, we can't come see you for a while. At least,” she choked, “six months.”

The thought of spending another week in here broke Danny, he couldn't imagine another six months of this.

“We're going to get you out of this, son,” Jack said. “We're doing everything we can. We... the media's on our side. But legally... you're in their custody.”

Danny couldn't help but find himself surprised. His Dad seemed genuine, and that confirmed his guess that his parents didn't actually despise him. Which only made him feel more guilty that he was putting them through such emotional turmoil. They shouldn't have to be bailing their stupid ghost son out of government ghost prison.

“I'm sorry,” Danny said, looking Jazz in the eyes instead of his parents. She was easier to face. “I'm sorry everything ended up like this. If I... wasn't like this, things would be okay. But instead, I... I messed up.”

“It's not your fault!” Jazz exploded. A tear rolled down her cheek, “Don't you  _dare_ blame this on yourself, Danny. Nobody deserves this treatment, so don't you dare try to apologize for something you can't help.”

“Your sister's right,” Maddie said. “We... this is so hard, Danny. But we don't hate you – we just feel ashamed for putting you in a position where you felt like you couldn't tell us. We made you feel unsafe, and maybe if we hadn't, we could've prepared for this together, or at least prevented it. What you are doesn't bother me Danny, it's the monsters that are doing this to you that are making me feel this way.”

The confirmation that she didn't hate what he was rekindled some of his lost hope. “I...  _thank you_ . I needed to hear that, you don't know... in here it's so.... Everything they do hurts. I just want out, so badly.”

“After this is all over, we're suing,” Maddie demanded. “They think they can objectify you, but they're wrong. Even when we leave Danny, you have to know that we support you.”

Jazz wiped at her tears, “Stay strong. We love you so much.”

“Sam and Tucker and Vladdie are working on getting you out. Sam and Tucker are rallying the kids are your school, and Vladdie is using as much as his mayoral power as possible to get you out. He's a true friend.”

Danny didn't know what to say to that. Vlad wasn't  _his_ friend, or his Dad's... so that meant that Vlad was doing it out of the goodness of his heart? Or maybe he was making sure that the GIW couldn't legally detain half-ghosts, for his own protection in the future. Vlad was selfish, but there was also the chance that he really was doing this for Danny.

“Don't give up, Danny. This isn't the end of our family, we promise.”

“We're going to make them pay for what they're doing to you. In time. Heartless sons of bitches.”

“You don't deserve this. Being a ghost doesn't mean that your rights are less than ours, so whatever they tell you, don't believe them.”

“ _We love you._ ”

The ten minutes were over. One of the fucking agents came in and took his family away from him. Another one came in on his side of the room and loosened his straps. He didn't move from his chair, and stared brokenly at the window his family had been at. He hadn't stood up quickly enough, so he was shocked by his collar.

He returned to his hours of lying on his back, suffering through laceration after laceration of flesh. Eventually, they got bored of doing that too, after a few days. They changed his routine again, and they started prodding him with needles so they could examine his reactions to different substances and chemicals. A lot of them made him feel nauseous, while others altered his body temperature, and some temporarily changed the color of his skin. They liked taking samples of his blood, and occasionally, they would cut off squares of skin so they could examine his skin and muscle tissues.

It was a different kind of pain than the slices, but it was still pain, nonetheless.

His family's encouragement was a good supplement of hope, but in the end it made everything more bittersweet. It felt like he was put in an emotion microwave and just left there. The fact that they had given him hope made it only more painful when he was deprived of it. Like giving a reformed addict cocaine, and then taking it away; the withdrawal effects were deadly.

In Danny's third week of unimaginable agony, the GIW changed it up again and decided to give him a chemical bath. Nobody really bothered explaining the purpose of it to him, but from what he could guess, they were trying to do something with his powers. They led him into the lab, demanded he change into Phantom, and made him take off all of his clothes, leaving him naked and exposed for everyone to see, instantly increasing his never ending anxiety. They even took off his shock collar, which was a momentary relief, before they poked guns into his bare skin and forced him inside a weird looking pod. 

Inside the pod, he wasn't able to see anything on the outside. He knew they could see him though, because he noticed there was a minuscule red light that indicated a camera inside the cramped area. There was the sound of something sliding, and liquid running – like a faucet, and then a foul smelling, red liquid started rising around his bare feet. It caressed his skin, and he could feel the clumpy texture of the substance as it crawled up his body, filling up the pod. Soon, it was up to his neck and he realized that they weren't going to stop filling it up until the entire pod was full. He wasn't going to be able to breathe. They were going to drown him in the chemical.

A different sense of fear filled him. Usually he was just afraid for the pain, but the GIW knew when to stop. This 'bath' could literally kill him if he drowned. 

He could die.

“S – stop!” he cried, keeping his head as close to the ceiling as possible. The pod was about the same height as him so it wasn't very easy. 

The chemical was still rising, and he was given no choice. He would have to hold his breath. Moments before the crimson liquid reached his mouth, he inhaled a deep breath and held it. He closed his eyes too, this stuff would probably burn if it got in his eyes. It was already burning in other unmentionable places. 

Soon enough, his lungs weakened with the burden of holding in oxygen. His lips begged to let go of the tension so he could exhale, but he knew if he did that he'd have to swallow the chemical. But Danny couldn't last forever in the battle against the limitation of his lungs; no one could. Finally, Danny's body surrendered and he let out the last of the air he was holding in. He breathed in the chemical, and it immediately gagged him. 

It tasted toxic. There were a million words Danny could use to describe the awful feeling of the substance crawling in his throat and mouth, but none of them were appropriate. Because there was no word for how this felt.

As someone who could turn intangible, Danny hadn't had to experience the fear of drowning in a long time. But now, he was experiencing it and that forgotten fear evolved into a panic attack. The more he panicked, the less he had control over his breathing, which caused him to choke faster. The chemical was making him aware of places in his throat that he hadn't known were there. It wasn't even fire; it was lava. Pure, boiling lava that was melting him from the inside out. 

With his eyes scrunched closed, he didn't experience the fade to black, but he eventually passed out from the lack of oxygen. He woke up later that day in his room, on his bed, in human form and wearing his regular uniform.

He just started crying. He couldn't help it. He was weak, so he cried. It was something he felt like doing, and even though it was shameful, he didn't feel undignified. They had drowned him in some ghostly chemical and he'd passed out. So, could anyone blame him for crying? 

They acted like it never happened. They had collected the data they needed from the experiment in the pod, so they moved on. They went back to the needles and observations, and occasionally revisited the injury tests. Or maybe they just wanted to hurt him for fun. After all, he was practically nothing to them, so they wouldn't be below doing that.

Near the end of the fourth week, he lost it. He couldn't stand being a lab-rat anymore, he couldn't stand the constant, never ending hell that he was in any longer. He was irrational. Hopeless.

He fought back against some of the agents. He transformed and grabbed one of their guns. He got around a corner, and tried to pry his collar off with a spare set of keys he'd stolen from one of the agents. It wasn't working. They keys weren't enough to break the clasp on the collar.  _Damn._

And, then, he was on the floor. The shock of the collar was ten times what he was accustomed to. It was almost close to destabilizing him, it was that hard of a shock. His fingers dripped away and so did parts of his legs and he was turning to goop and he was also on fire and – and. Too much screaming inside his head, but not in his throat.

They dragged him back into his room, and that night, the experiments were more painful than usual. 

He was forced to endure the next two weeks without a single protest. They had gotten used to his obedient behavior until his pathetic escape attempt. Suddenly, they were back on edge again, and reminded how dangerous Danny could possibly be.

Danny wondered if his drastic flip-out is what initiated them to go forth with their most heinous experimental procedure yet. They wanted to vivisect him.

It wasn't a sudden thing. They physically and mentally prepared him for the vivisection a few days before it actually happened. They told him what they planned on doing, and that they'd play around in his guts, take a few samples, stitch him up and wait for him to heal. Of course, he was terrified out of his mind. They were going to play surgery with him, but it wasn't surgery... it was so much sicker than that. It was sick. He was sick thinking about it.

At least, since he'd been well behaved since his escape attempt, they were being merciful enough to knock him out during the actual vivisection. That meant that going under would be the scariest part, and hopefully he wouldn't wake up dead or in multiple pieces. He'd just have to experience all the pain afterwards, but at least he wouldn't be conscious or anything. That was the stuff of horror stories.

The day came, and they brought him in. They made him change into Phantom and strip again, but at least this time he got to keep his underwear. That was at least less humiliating and revealing. They put him on the metal table, and made him spread his arms out, reminding him of those fetal pigs they had to dissect in biology. ( _Don't think about it too much, please don't think don't_ don't _._ )

They held up a syringe with a dull drug that was going to keep him under long enough for them to do what they wanted to do to him, and it would also keep him in ghost form after he passed out. He couldn't stop them, even if he tried, so he just let it happen. At least after the vivisection he would get a break from the usual experiments so he could recuperate fully. That was at least a good thing, right?

Nothing about any of this was good, or ethical, but he was theirs. He had to let them do this to him, no matter how scared he was. No matter how much he hated it. That was his role as the lab-rat.

The needle went in his vein, and everything started getting sleepy. He knew that when he would wake up, everything would hurt, so he braced himself for that. His eyelids drooped and he heard the clatter of a scalpel, but he couldn't bring himself to care....

The pain when he woke up was excruciating. He was utterly, sore inside his chest and stomach and breathing was a labor. He was surprised to observe that instead of his normal room, he was in some sort of medical area. There was an IV tube in his arm, and he was happy to let himself be filled with morphine. He needed it, _badly_. When he looked down, his entire chest was bandaged, and he could see traces of red and green blood soaking through the bandages. He was also still Phantom, which meant that whatever he transformed, everything would hurt _more_. That was definitely something to look forward to, which was why he was going to stay a ghost as long as they allowed him to.

He hadn't expected such... courteous care post-vivisection, but he supposed the GIW wanted him to feel better so they could get back to ripping him apart while he was in peak condition.

He spent a week recuperating. He managed to turn back to human, which did hurt more than being a ghost, but it was a necessary step in his healing process. Unavoidable hurdle. After he didn't need the drugs anymore, most of the time he was in his own room, so he just laid in his bed, staring at the plain ceiling. At that point, he started to wonder what Sam and Tucker were doing with him gone. His Dad had said they were rallying the teenagers, but what else were they doing in their spare time? Were they going to movies on the weekends? Were they keeping up with their homework? He didn't want them to stop doing things just because he got captured. That wasn't right. They deserved to have their own lives.

He thought about lots of things, and lots of people too. He even missed some of the ghosts. He knew that they didn't care less about him, though. He was just another GIW casualty, a failure to them. 

His recuperation period was scheduled to end soon, and it depressed him. He couldn't go back to that daily hell of being stabbed and scrapped and cut and melted. But it was inevitable, because he was theirs.

One day before he was scheduled to return to the lab regularly, they collected him from his room. Instantly, he began to panic. Apparently they were starting early. He wasn't ready for this, he had told himself for five days that he wouldn't have to go back to the lab until tomorrow, but they suddenly changed it on him. They _never_ deviated from schedule unless there was a really bad reason. Anxiety held him by the shoulders and made him nearly trip down the hallway.

He walked to the usual lab, and was taken aback when the guard shook his head. He wasn't going to the usual place today. They were taking him somewhere different. That was also bad. 

They led him down a part of the hallway that he'd never been in before. And then... they brought him to an elevator? He fidgeted nervously, unable to foresee what new torture they were going to introduce him to today. The elevator brought them from the lowest sub-levels of the facility to the ground floor. What-?

Danny gulped. He knew better than to ask any questions at this point. They'd electrocute him in an instant. 

The elevator doors slid open and he was carelessly pushed forward again. It was... bright, wherever he was. No. Was that a _window_? That was sunlight? He hadn't seen sunlight in two months. Why had they brought him up here?

“-a shame,” he heard someone mutter. “Unfortunate loss of opportunity.”

This had to be another one of his optimistic dreams. He was back asleep, ten floors below. This wasn't real.

The agent led him forward, and he followed with rapidly growing curiosity. ( _Don't get your hopes up, this could just be another experiment. You could just be meeting with Blanchard or something._ ) The further he wandered through the first floor, he realized that he was actually in the lobby. There were waiting areas, and there were various agents lingering around, holding cups of coffee and chatting normally.

He couldn't stand the heavy, mysterious tension anymore. “Why am I up here?” he asked the agent.

For the first time he could remember, the agent actually replied instead of just shocking him. The tall man gave a disgusted look and grumbled, “It's your free day. We don't own you anymore.”

That hit him like a bus out of nowhere. It was... over? Actually, for real, over? He was going home? After so long, after so much pain and irreversible mental and physical scarring? It had to be some kind of cruel joke. But... here he was. He could see the sunlight in the windows, meaning he had left his underground prison behind. 

Free. Well, almost.

It was unbelievable. Relieving. Daunting, even. For now, he could live without being studied by the government, but so much more awaited his new life.

“Danny?” he turned to the side. There was his family again, and rather than appearing sad like they had in the window, they were welcoming. They were relieved, just like him. Jazz was crying again, but this time it was tears of joy. He wanted to run over to them, but until he got his collar removed, he had to yield to the agent next to him. 

The agent took his time in angrily walking over to the Fentons. He was clearly pissed off that they were losing Danny as a specimen. Finally, there were standing next to his parents and sister and before the agent could protest, all members of his family crushed him in a group hug. Thankfully, he'd mainly recovered from the vivisection injuries, but he was still pretty sore from that experience. He could've stayed in their grip for all eternity at that point, he was so happy. 

“I missed you so, so much,” Jazz said, running her hand through his hair. She didn't even care that it was greasy from his lack of showering. 

The agent loudly coughed, and Danny remembered that he still needed to take off the collar. He was more than willing to let that happen. The agent took out some kind of magnetic key, and it effortlessly unlocked the collar. It fell off of Danny's neck, and clattered to the white tiled floor. At that moment, he was tempted, and Danny wondered if it would be illegal to destroy his fallen collar. Probably, since everyone in the vicinity would probably shoot him instantly.

Now, he was actually free.

By the time they walked out of that God-forsaken fucking facility, they were all bawling their eyes out. Jack was the worst, even though he claimed to never cry. Everyone was glad to have Danny back, and Danny was grateful that his nightmare was over. His physical anguish was in the past.

Nothing felt real. What was his new reality? What was his new life? It wasn't the same as the last one.

Danny ended up laying his head on Jazz's lap in the backseat of the car. He was still wearing his GIW uniform, and couldn't wait to get back home to take it off immediately and take a hot shower. 

He was finally free after so what felt like so long. It was his first free day.

 


End file.
